Life

Abdas was born in fourth-century Chaldor to a Zoroastrian mother, who educated him in matters of virtue. After Abdas reached adulthood, he was ordained a Christian priest, and built up in his hometown a monastery and a school, which grew to have around 60 teachers. Abdas baptized many converts in Chaldor, which caused the magi to arrest him. In prison, Abdas was subjected to humiliations, hunger and pain, but remained a Christian until his release. Abdas became a bishop in Kaskhar (Susa).[2]

Abdas was an associate of Maruthas of Martyropolis. Abdas is supposed to have helped Maruthas in driving out a demon from King Yezdegerd's son.[1] However, his impetuosity, put an end to the good relations between the Persian king and the Christian community. Engaged in a dispute with the local magi in AD 420, Abdas destroyed one of the fire temples of the Zoroastrians. Complaint was made to King Yazdegerd, who ordered the bishop to restore the building and make good all damage that he had committed. Abdas refused to rebuild a heathen temple at his own expense.[3] These events soured the relationship between the Christian church and the Persian government, which had previously been good, and caused a wave of persecution against the Christians in Persia.[4] The result was that orders were issued for the destruction of all churches, and these were carried out by the Zoroastrians, who had regarded with great envy the royal favour extended to Maruthas and his co-religionists. Before long the destruction of churches developed into a general persecution, in which Abdas was one of the first martyrs.[5]

His companions included the priests Hashu and Isaac, the secretary Ephrem, the hypodeacon Papa, the laymen Daduk and Durdan, and Papa, a brother of Abdas himself were also killed. His feast day is 5 September or 16 May[6] in the Roman Catholic Church, and March 31 in the Syrian church.

Benjamin (AD 329 – c. 424) was a deacon martyred circa 424 in Persia. Benjamin was executed during a period of persecution of Christians that lasted forty years and through the reign of two Persian kings: Isdegerd I, who died in 421, and his son and successor, Varanes V. King Varanes carried on the persecution with such great fury that Christians were submitted to the most cruel tortures.

Christianity has a long history in Iran, dating back to the early years of the faith, and pre-dating Islam. It has always been a minority religion relative to the majority state religions (Zoroastrianism before the Islamic conquest, Sunni Islam in the Middle Ages and Shia Islam in modern times), though it had a much larger representation in the past than it does today. Christians of Iran have played a significant part in the history of Christian mission. Today, there are at least 600 churches and 300,000–370,000 Christians in Iran.

This is an incomplete list of Christian saints in alphabetical order by Christian name, but, where known and given, a surname, location, or personal attribute (included as part of the name) may affect the ordering.

One list says there are 810 canonized Roman Catholic saints (who have been through the formal institutional process of canonization), although some give numbers in the thousands. (Pope John Paul II alone canonized 110 individuals, plus many group canonizations such as 110 martyr saints of China, 103 Korean martyrs, 117 Vietnamese martyrs, Mexican Martyrs, Spanish martyrs and French revolutionary martyrs.) Among the Eastern Orthodox and Oriental Orthodox Communions, the numbers may be even higher, since there is no fixed process of "canonization" and each individual jurisdiction within the two Orthodox communions independently maintains parallel lists of saints that have only partial overlap. Note that 78 popes are considered saints.The Anglican Communion recognizes pre-Reformation saints, as does the United Methodist Church. Persons who have led lives of celebrated sanctity or missionary zeal are included in the Calendar of the Prayer Book "without thereby enrolling or commending such persons as saints of the Church". Similarly, any individuals commemorated in the Lutheran calendar of saints will be listed as well.

Wikipedia contains calendars of saints for particular denominations, listed by the day of the year on which they are traditionally venerated, as well as a chronological list of saints and blesseds, listed by their date of death.

May 16 is the 136th day of the year (137th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 229 days remaining until the end of the year.

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